New to this. Wondering if this ram will work on my pc

[dotX]

Hey guys. I have an old school Gateway 500gr, here are the specs



500GR Specifications
Show Part Numbers
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1008276, 3724
Model: 500GR

Gateway® 500GR Computer Specifications
Processor Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with Hyper-Threading Technology

* 3.0 GHz
* 800 MHz FSB
* 1 MB L2 cache

System Chipset Intel 915G Express Chipset
# Memory Installed: 512 MB PC3200 (400 MHz)
# Four DIMM sockets that support the following:

* 2.5 V (only) DDR SDRAM DIMMs with gold-plated contacts
* Unbuffered, single-sided or double-sided DIMMs with the following restriction:
Double-sided DIMMS with ×16 organization are not supported.
* 2 GB maximum total addressable system memory.
* Minimum total system memory: 128 MB
* Non-ECC DIMMs
* Serial Presence Detect
* DDR 400 MHz and DDR 333 MHz SDRAM DIMMs
* Support for dual channel memory mode

Hard Drive 200 GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive with 8 MB cache
Media Card Reader 8-in-1 Media Manager supporting the following:

* CompactFlash Card
* IBM MicroDrive
* Memory Stick
* Memory Stick Pro
* SmartMedia Card
* Secure Digital(SD)/MMC
* USB 2.0

Sound Support Intel High Definition (HD) Audio
Video Chipset Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA)
Up to 64 MB shared video RAM
# Port Connectors 7 USB 2.0 ports (2 in front bezel, 1 in Media Manager, 4 on rear)
# 3 IEEE 1394 Ports (2 in front bezel, 1 in back)
# 1 Serial Port
# 1 Parallel Port
# 2 PS/2 Ports (Keyboard & Mouse)
# Audio In and Out
# RJ-11 Modem
# RJ-45 Ethernet LAN
# Expansion Card Slots 2 PCI (1 open)
# 1 PCI Express x1 Slots (open)
# 1 PCI Express x16 Slots (open)
# Optical Drives Double layer 8X DVD+/-RW drive
# 48X CD-ROM drive
# Expansion Bays 2 external 3.5-inch (1 open)
# 2 internal 3.5-inch (1 open)
# 2 5.25-inch (both used by optical drives)


Sorry for the long post. I'm looking to upgrade to 2 gigs of ram. Wondering if 4 of these would work
http://www.frys.com/product/3645865?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

at the very bottom it sais something along the lines of up to 2 modules per system is supported? not sure what that means. And I'm not sure what CAS latency is.

<<<NOOB

Thanks for any help in advance

 

[shozzking]

that RAM looks pretty good, the lower the CAS latency, the better it is

 

[dotX]

Thanks. Apparently that particular set isnt available anymore.
The other question I have is, I believe I read my pc has 4 ram slots, and can support up to 2 gigs or 2048mb of ram. Which totals 512 per slot. Does that mean I have to use 512 per slot or can I buy 2 1gig pieces. Thanks again

because im having a hard time finding 512mb pc3200 184 pin ram

Oh and im a bit confused as to how many slot my pc actually has... On one site I found where it sais it only has 2 slots...
* Your Gateway 500 maximum RAM capacity: 2GB
* The 500GR has 2 memory slots or sockets
* This 500 module upgrade PIN count is: 184-PIN
* The memory speed is: DDR 400MHz, PC3200
* The PC DIMM type for your 500GR is: UDIMM, Unregistered DIMM, Unbuffered DIMM

But on other sites it sais it has 4. (my first post shows 4 dimm slots in the specs) And from what I can see looking in there, I see 4 slots, 2 of which are taken up by the 256mb x2

 

[Computear]

Thanks. Apparently that particular set isnt available anymore.
The other question I have is, I believe I read my pc has 4 ram slots, and can support up to 2 gigs or 2048mb of ram. Which totals 512 per slot. Does that mean I have to use 512 per slot or can I buy 2 1gig pieces. Thanks again

because im having a hard time finding 512mb pc3200 184 pin ram

Oh and im a bit confused as to how many slot my pc actually has... On one site I found where it sais it only has 2 slots...
* Your Gateway 500 maximum RAM capacity: 2GB
* The 500GR has 2 memory slots or sockets
* This 500 module upgrade PIN count is: 184-PIN
* The memory speed is: DDR 400MHz, PC3200
* The PC DIMM type for your 500GR is: UDIMM, Unregistered DIMM, Unbuffered DIMM

But on other sites it sais it has 4. (my first post shows 4 dimm slots in the specs) And from what I can see looking in there, I see 4 slots, 2 of which are taken up by the 256mb x2

You can buy 2x 1GB sticks of RAM, you don't have to fill every slot, though it is recommended you keep it balanced (i.e. don't buy 2x 256MB sticks, 1x 512MB, and 1x 1GB, keep it 2x 1GB or 4x 512MB) to ensure it works correctly.

 

[jmacavali]

The easiest way to tell how many slots it has is to take the side of the case off and look at the mobo.

You should be able to put in 2 1Gb sticks.

 

[dotX]

Bump.

Ok, So i found new ram. Its 2 sticks of Hynix pc3200u-30330, 512mb ddr 400mhz CL3. Matching set, unbuffered I believe and dual channel compatible? Not sure, friend gave me the ram.

There are 4 slots, blk/white blk/white
The 2 original 256mb sticks are in the white slots (dual channel I believe, matching colors)
I installed the new ram in the black slots. System booted right up and looking at the cpu information it showed 1.49g of ram. Problem is everything was running slower. The online drag racing game I normally play could barely run.

So I took the old ram and out replaced it withe the new ram, only running the new ram in the slots the original ones were (white slots) and again the pc booted up... but same scenario, everything running slower. Also tried them in just the black slots. So I took that out and put the original 2x256mb back in the old slots and it runs just fine. Can't quite figure out why its not running right. Again, I'm a straight up noob at this.. but catch onto things pretty quickly with a little nudging along the way. Any input would help and thanks in advance.

Also, I had a friend come over and did some adjusting in the bios? And he also brought over 2 sticks of kingston 512 pc 3200 ram, tried that in every configuration along with mine and same problem every time...computer runs noticeably slower than with the original 512mb of ram it had.

My intention is to run the system with 2gigs instead of 512mb
If it helps Im running xp home edition. there are no other mods to this pc, all original.

I have a laptop I can sign onto with if someone could possibly walk me through it, if possible

 

[jmacavali]

Did you try just one of the 'new' sticks of RAM? See if that make a difference. Other than that, I've never heard of this kind of problem....sorry

 

[dotX]

Never thought of trying that. I'll pull the old 256mb sticks out and throw a single 512 in there...see what it does. Obviously wont be any better, I believe 2 sticks of 256mb running in dual channel run better than 1 512mb? But I'll try it just to see if it runs.

Run the same, possible a bit better. Kind of hard to tell. But it works with just 1 stick of 512mb. But as soon as I add another one, even a matching piece...it runs like crap and everything lags really bad.

 

[jmacavali]

Hmm...

Does it matter which 1 stick of 512 you use. I'm wondering if some of them are bad. Try using each one individually. Also, try leaving the 2 256's in there and adding in just one of the 512's. See what happens.

 

[dotX]

Doesnt matter which stick. They all work just 1 at a time. Also tried both sticks of 256 in dual channel mode (factory setting) and put 1 single stick of 512 with it. Got a message that the memory on both channels was not the same but proceeded anyways, worked just fine. Went and played my online game and it runs pretty good.